Blue sky over the Ruhr area
“The sky over the Ruhr area must turn blue again” was a demand made by Willy Brandt in 1961. Brandt stood for the first time as a candidate for chancellor of his party, the SPD, against the then 85-year-old Konrad Adenauer in the 1961 federal election on September 17, 1961 on.
history
On April 28, 1961, Brandt made the following demands from his election platform in the Beethovenhalle (Bonn): “Terrifying research results show that in connection with air and water pollution, an increase in leukemia, cancer, rickets and changes in the blood count, even in children is to be determined. It is shocking that this collective task, which involves the health of millions of people, has so far been almost completely neglected. The sky over the Ruhr area has to turn blue again! "
The idea was launched in the election program by Heinrich Deist (SPD economics minister in Brandt's shadow cabinet). Deist was chairman of the supervisory board of the steel company Bochumer Verein .
With the paraphrase "almost completely neglected joint task" Brandt denounced a kind of state failure . The Federal Environment Agency wrote in a press release in 2011: “Willy Brandt's demand during his speech on April 28, 1961 ... can rightly be seen as the beginning of environmental policy thinking in Germany. With this, Brandt moved - long before the terms environmental protection or environmental policy existed - a regional and hitherto neglected problem into the focus of socio-political debates. He drew attention to the dark side of the German economic miracle ... "
The SPD presidium passed the resolution "Social justice through more environmental protection". Brandt's demand was partly ridiculed, but not forgotten.
At that time, air pollution in the Ruhr area had led to rents falling in some places. The incidence of respiratory diseases was high.
In August 1961 , Der Spiegel named among other things the causes of air pollution :
- 56 Thomas steel converter
- 75 coal mine power plants and 18 other coal power plants
- 82 blast furnaces connected to other steel melting or soaking furnaces
- 17 cement works and oil refineries as well
- 1,976 steam locomotives of the Federal Railroad and works locomotives
In January 1962, the interest group against air pollution damage and air pollution was founded in Essen , one of the first citizens' initiatives in Germany. In December 1962 there was a smog crisis in the Ruhr area .
The TA Luft came into force in 1964.
literature
- Franz-Josef Brüggemeier , Thomas Rommelspacher : Blue sky over the Ruhr. History of the environment in the Ruhr area 1840–1990. Klartext-Verlag , November 1999, ISBN 978-3-88474-364-5
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c How the sky over the Ruhr turned blue again. In: WAZ , April 25, 2010 ( online )
- ↑ Press release from the Federal Environment Agency ( online )
- ↑ How the sky over the Ruhr turned blue again. Documentary. WDR , 2010
- ↑ Ulrich Kelber: Social justice through more environmental protection. 50 years "The sky over the Ruhr area must turn blue again." Template for a meeting of the SPD Presidium, March 2011 ( PDF )
- ↑ To blue skies. In: Spiegel No. 33, August 9, 1961 ( online )